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Mambwe fire, July 2017 Mambwe, Lumezi

Out · last detection 17 Jul 2017, 10:47 UTC

The fire started on 12 July 2017 in Mambwe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,155 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Eastern since 2016 (of 59 with a page). Number 93 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
5,155ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
12 Jul 2017 – 16 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
12 Jul
2017
Heat detections
156
in a single hotspot: 119 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jul16 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

121314151617

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

30°high
34km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,248 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mambwe where it started
    3,137 ha reached on 12 Jul
    0.5 %
  2. Lumezi
    2,047 ha reached on 12 Jul
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
12 Jul 28.2 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Jul 28.0 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Jul 28.8 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Jul 29.7 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Jul 29.9 °C 23 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Jul after 31.5 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Jul after 30.1 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Jul after 30.5 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Jul after 29.6 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jul after 30.1 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jul after 29.9 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Jul after 31.4 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Jul after 31.5 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jul after 29.7 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Jul after 28.6 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 5 Jul 2017
After · 23 Jul 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 156Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mambwe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 July 2017 and 16 July 2017: 5 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,155 hectares (51.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mambwe (3,137 ha, 0.5 %); Lumezi (2,047 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zambia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.